Video coding is a process of preparing video (video data), where the video is encoded to meet proper formats and specifications for recording and playback. Motion estimation is an important and computationally intensive task in video coding and video compression.
The Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG), together with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) joint working group, the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), has developed the Advanced Video Coding (AVC) standard. The AVC standard, or AVC, is also known as H.264. The AVC is an example of a standard for video encoding, and is one of the most commonly used formats for the recording, compression, and distribution of high definition video. Other standards include and are not limited to, Motion Pictures Experts Group 2 (MPEG2), Scalable Video Coding (SVC), and High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), etc.
In a typical video encoding process, a first stage is to analyze the frame to find spatial and temporal redundancy which can be exploited to reduce the bits to describe a given frame of a video. Specifically, each macro block is predicted from spatial neighbors or temporal neighbors, where the objective of the encoder is to predict the current macro block with the least amount of error, because the error correction terms represent the largest cost in bits of the final bitstream. A second stage of the typical video encoding process may require a second pass of encoding based on the first stage.
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